Ever get an urge to be spontaneous, really spontaneous? Ever had
the desire to throw all caution to the wind and make a whimsical model purchase?
Sure you have! We all have, including me! We all probably do this often, in
fact. (Way too often)!

Recently I followed through with one of my spur of the moment
urges, bit the bullet and purchased a kit. My acquisition was a brand new 1:100
scale Bandi HG Gundam Wing Mobile Suit WING GUNDAM (XXXG-01W) model.

I had been browsing through the shelves of a local Toys R Us
store. When going down one of the isles I spotted this small gem. Actually, it
appeared that there had been a number of other 1:100 scale Gundams out as well,
(a Gundam Deathscythe Hell, an Altron Gundam and a Gundam Epyon). The Wing
Gundam was the only one left, though.

Earlier in the year I had heard that these models had started
invading the stores on the West coast. I guess they finally worked their way
Eastward.

These robot models have been very popular in Japan for quite
some time, along with the various Gundam Anime (Japanese Cartoon) shows that
have been showing there. With the introduction of the Gundam Wings animated
series to the US earlier this year, the craze has started attacking us
Westerners as well.

The WING GUNDAM was priced at the (slightly) steep fee of
$20.00. It only took me a minute or so to decide to scarf it up.

Bandi has been creating models containing multi-colored parts
with very good snap fitting characteristics for a number of years. I hoped this
would be another example of their good engineering.

I wanted to throw this kit together pretty quickly and not have
to worry about painting it nor cleaning up the seams. I hoped it would end up
looking "presentable." Also, I hoped that it would help to alleviate
the hum-drum, seam cleaning, multi-colored paint scheme masking tediousness
that had begun taking some of the joy out of modeling for me.

When I arrived home and opened the box I was very happy to
discover that this was indeed another one of their multi-colored/snap
together/excellent designed kits.

(Look at a glance)

The WING GUNDAM comes molded in seven different colors. In addition,
there were oodles of parts: 13 Clear Green, 14 Red, 15 Gold, 19 Blue, 25 Medium
Gray, 35 off White and 34 Dark Gray cap-stan (flexible) plastic joints,
yielding a grand total of 155 parts! The cap-stan parts are the things that
enable the hands and feet and arms and legs and head to move. There was also a
small stick-on decal sheet.

Another pleasant surprise was that this kit was designed with
many of the recessed panel lines located along the edges of adjoining parts.
(This was getting better and better)!

There were two different instructional booklets: a color one
written in Japanese containing numerous color photos of the Mobile Suit, along
with a black-n-white English booklet. Since both contain the same picture
diagrams, either works equally well.

(A family affair?)

When I arrived home I was cornered by my two sons! They wanted
my model! Anthony and my younger son Michael had been viewing the Gundam Wing
series on TV shortly after it started airing this year. With their model
building activity being non-existent for many months, maybe this would spur
them on to start building again.

The next day I dropped by a different Toys R Us store and picked
up two more Wing Gundams, (one for each of my sons). In addition, I found a
Gundam Deathscythe Hell, an Altron Gundam Mobile Suit and a Gundam Epyon Mobile
Suit. I ended up purchasing the last three kits for myself. The Epyon Gundam
was priced at $20.00, with the other two priced at $28.00, (due to the
additional parts contained within).

I arrived home late that evening and Anthony and Michael were so
psyched that they talked me into letting them start working on the robots right
then. So, there we were, sitting at the kitchen table, working on the Gundams
until around 11:30.

Anthony worked on his by himself with very little assistance
from me. Michael, on the other hand, required some help. Anthony got half way
through and Michael and I got a quarter of the way finished with his before I
decided that I had had enough building for the evening.

The next morning Anthony's building juices were still flowing.
He talked me into letting him finish his kit by himself, instead of waiting
until I arrived home from work to help. He ended up finishing it later on that
day.

I helped Michael with his robot when I arrived home and we
finished it off (finally) about two weeks later.

Even though I had to delay starting my own, it was so nice
seeing them so enthusiastic about building theirs that I didn't mind. In
addition, this was a good father/son group/bonding activity. Finally, the fact
that I worked with them on theirs first gave me a chance to decide how to
attack mine later.

(FINALLY - Time to build my own!)

During the weekend following my purchase of the robots I got a
chance to start working on my Gundams. I decided to work on both the Wing
Gundam and the Gundam Epyon simultaneously.

Since I had detected some minor spaces between the adjoining
parts of Anthony's and Michael's kits, along with there existing a general
looseness to them, I decided to use some liquid cements on my Gundams.
Plastruct Plastic Weld and Tenax-7R were used. Clothespins were used to clamp
the pieces together until the glue set.

The Plastic Weld was used for most of the building. It was
applied liberally to the inner alignment pins and holes, along with the edges
of the adjoining parts. The Tenax-7R was carefully applied only to a couple
additional areas, where gaps still existed after the Plastic Weld was used.

The parts to these robots are designed to interlock together
with successive parts fitting over the existing assemblies. This is the case
with the feet, the legs, the arms and the heads. Because of this, I did not
follow the "suggested" assembly steps. Instead, I decided to work on all
inner assemblies first, attaching the surrounding outer parts next, and so on.

I ended up achieving a very good fit with the parts. In many
cases, the good fitting design combined with the liquid cements completely
removed the seams, leaving a smooth transition from one piece to the other. In
others, these gaps were only barely noticeable.

A number of times I ended up getting some of the glue on the
outer surface areas. Fortunately, by quickly using a piece of 300 grit sand
paper followed by some 600 grit sand paper, I was able to completely polish out
the damaged plastic areas! I was even able to restore the original sheen to the
bare plastic in just about all cases, so you couldn't tell that the plastic had
been damaged! (I've never been able to do that before!) I don't know what type
of plastic Bandi uses, but I really wish other model manufacturers would follow
suit and use it as well.

Another one of my blunders was the accidental removal of some of
the golden yellow coating on one of the wing tips of the Wing Gundam kit.
Because of this, I decided to strip off all of the gold/yellow coating and
paint it Model Master Gold. I ended up using a liquid called Paint and Decal
Removal Solution, by Polly S, to do the job.

Some liberal applications of this substance to the parts,
followed by some soft scrubbing with a Q-tip removed the entire outer coloring.

After washing these parts in soapy water and air-drying them, I
airbrushed the Gold on. This new finish was not quite as shiny as the original.
However, it still worked for me.